Then on the other hand: “But the other night we saw something that makes me wonder.”

Earlier this month, NASA cameras spotted a fireball moving across the sky in Alabama and Georgia. Its characteristics were similar to one spotted over eastern Canada a few hours earlier, indicating the fireballs had a common source.

“It’s as if they came from a common parent,” Cooke said.

And he said Comet Hartley 2 is a good bet, though he cautions the fireballs could just be a coincidence.

If there is a meteor shower from the comet — something dubbed “‘Hartley-ids” by astronomers — then it would be most visible the nights of Nov. 2 and 3. The shower could be seen in the northern hemisphere just after sunset, seeming to emanate from the constellation Cygnus.

“I’ll definitely have our cameras turned on,” said Cooke. “It’s probably going to be a non-event. On the other hand, we might discover a whole new meteor shower.”